ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (60 page)

But once he began to feel better, to come out of his funk and live again, he found himself fretting about Athena. Could it really be that easy to put her off of Kosta? And what was Kosta’s intention? He’d heard nothing from the man since the day Kosta had arrived on Halithos with Athena. That was worrisome.

He decided he needed to talk to Athena. The holidays were approaching, and there would be time enough to sit down with her and find out if Kosta had tried to insinuate himself into her life. She hadn’t mentioned Kosta again, and Simon thought that was probably a good sign.

On the day she was to return, Simon and Eirene drove out to the airstrip to meet her plane. Simon was in good spirits and looking forward to the holidays, and to spending his first Christmas with Eirene, and going into a new year as a married man.

And then Athena stepped off the plane with Kosta.

Simon’s emotions, which were still unsettled, boiled up at the sight of his former business partner and he began to shout before they were down the steps.

“What the hell are you doing with my sister?” he yelled.

Athena looked horrified, Kosta’s face was unreadable. They stepped onto the tarmac and Simon grabbed Kosta by the lapels and shook him. “I told you to stay away from her!”

Athena caught hold of Simon’s arm. “Simon stop it!”

“Calm down, old man,” Kosta said, a ghost of a smile on his face. “I told you I’d respect Athena’s wishes, and she wished to see me.”

“Simon, please.”

“Athena I told you what kind of a man he is. What were you thinking?”

“That I love him!” she shouted at him, yanking him free of Kosta. “And that we’re married.”

Simon actually staggered backward, he was that stunned. “What?”

“We’re married.”

He stared at them as if he didn’t even recognize them. Then, quietly, he said, “Get out.”

“What?”

“Get off Halithos. You’re not welcome here.”

“Simon, this is my home,” Athena protested.

Eirene caught hold of his arm. “Simon!”

“It’s not your home. Not while you’re married to that man.”

“Simon, stop!” Eirene said. “Athena, let me talk to him.”

Athena had begun to cry and when Kosta put his arm around her, Simon nearly exploded again. But Eirene led him off, clutching his arm with fingers like steel bands.

“What is wrong with you?”

“That bastard. That lousy bastard, how dare he?” Simon muttered. “I’ll have him killed.”

“What are you talking about? Simon, this is insane! That’s your sister.”

“I told her. I said, that man is not to be trusted. She said she understood, and then she runs off and does this? What’s wrong with her?”

“With her? What’s wrong with you? How can you take such a dislike to a man you met once for five minutes?”

“I know him Eirene. I was in business with him. He’s a criminal.”

She went pale and Simon realized he’d said too much. “I mean… I think he’s a criminal.”

“No. You meant what you said. I could see it in your eyes, Simon. I always know when you’re lying. You’re going to explain yourself to me when we get home, but for now we have to deal with this.” She released her death grip on his arm. “You stay here. Don’t you dare move an inch. Promise me.”

He said nothing, looked away.

“I said, promise me, Simon.” It was spoken with such authority that he nodded, still unable to meet her gaze. She walked back to where Kosta was comforting Athena and spoke to them for a few moments. She said something to Kosta and he shook his head. But the next time she spoke to him, he nodded. Athena just stared up at him as if she had never seen him before.

They walked back up the steps and got on the plane. Eirene spoke to the attendant who nodded and followed them on board.

When she returned to the car, she said, “They’re going to Athens to wait until you and I have discussed this. I think Athena will have something to discuss with her husband as well. Get in the car.”

“Eirene—”

“Simon, I am simply in no mood. Please get in the car, or I will leave you standing here.” She climbed into the car and Simon saw no other option but to follow her.

The ride back to the house was silent, and time enough for Simon to berate himself for having let too much slip. He’d broken ties with Kosta when he fell in love with Eirene. He had hoped she’d never know what kind of a man he’d been before they met, that her low opinion of him had been just. And in a moment of uncontrolled anger, he’d blurted out everything. He tried to blame Athena, tried to blame Kosta, but in the end, he knew that what he’d done, he’d done to himself.

He was so ashamed.

Once they were back at the house and upstairs, Eirene said, “you must tell me the truth, Simon. What did you mean when you said that you were in business with Kosta? You knew him before your parents died?”

“Yes.”

“And you say he’s a criminal?”

“I said, I thought—”

“Simon, don’t lie to me. Don’t make this worse. What have you done?”

“It wasn’t anything, Eirene. Some contraband, that’s all.”

She studied his face. “That’s not all, is it?”

“Of course.”

“You’re lying to me. Simon, never play poker, you’re a terrible liar. What else?”

“Antiquities. I mean, I knew he was looking for them. He found a few and I arranged for him to show them to some friends. That’s all.” It sounded so lame, so deluded.

“That’s all,” she repeated. “You knew he was looting the cultural heritage of other countries for profit, and you say, “that’s all?” How can you be so blase?”

“They were nothing, Eirene. Just small things. Sometimes things that would have been destroyed by groups like the Taliban.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to profit off of them. I am so disappointed in you.”

Of all the things she could have said, all the possible recriminations, that had to be the worst. He loved her so dearly that to disappoint her was like a knife in his heart. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“What can I do about it?” he asked. The helpless feeling was back again.

“Go to the police.”

“You want me to go to prison?”

She just stared at him. “Do you think I want that? What I want is for you to clean up your mess, Simon. Be the man I thought I married.” She retrieved her nightgown. “I’m going to sleep in another room tonight. I need time to think.” She left him standing alone in their bedroom, his heart heavy with fresh grief.

Eirene didn’t know what to do. Ever since she’d met Simon, she’d been convinced that her initial impression of him had been wrong-headed, informed by gossip rags that painted him as an amoral, billionaire playboy. She’d been ashamed to have believed those things of a man who had treated her with such care and concern, and had berated herself for her ill-informed judgment.

But now it turned out to be worse than what she’d thought. It wasn’t the women, it wasn’t the wild parties that often brought police out. It wasn’t the conspicuous consumption and waste of money that could help others. It was that her husband was a criminal.

And the worst thing was that in her heart, she still loved him, deeply and passionately. She still longed for his touch, and wanted so badly to hold him and tell him that everything would be all right so long as they were together. That was her heart speaking.

Her head said that what he’d done was reprehensible. To loot other cultures of their treasures was not just a crime in the most objective sense, but it betrayed everything she believed in and respected. And he’d made excuses, had made it sound as if he’d been doing the world a favor.

Eirene lay down on the bed and wept. She cried herself to sleep, and the last thing she thought as she felt her consciousness ebb was that she couldn’t tell Simon that she was pregnant now. Until she knew what he planned to do to make things right, she had to keep her secret instead of offering it to him as his Christmas gift.

She had never felt more miserable in her life.

But the next morning, when she work, she felt as if she had somehow resolved her problem. Whatever else she felt about the things Simon had done, the bottom line was that he was her husband and she owed him her allegiance even if she couldn’t support his actions.

She got up and walked down to their bedroom, hoping to discuss the matter without a lot of drama. She’d make it clear that she still loved him, and that she believed the rest could be worked out. But the bed had not been slept in and there was no sign of Simon.

She went downstairs, but the house seemed empty. Maria was in the kitchen, making coffee.

“Maria, is Mr. Katsaros in the house?”

“I don’t believe so, ma’am,” she replied. I haven’t seen him at all today.”

“Thank you,” she said, even while thinking how odd it was to find him missing. “He probably went for a drive,” she said aloud. Sometimes she talked to herself, mostly when she was upset. It was a way to calm her fears. “He’ll be fine.”

But the day wore on and there was no sign of him. She’d tried his cell phone several times, but it went straight to voice mail. By lunchtime she was convinced he’d left the island, and she called the airstrip to find out if he’d flown out. It was that, or he’d taken one of the yachts.

“He flew out of here early this morning. About…” The manager checked the flight logs. “About seven-thirty. Bound for Athens.”

“Thank you.” She hung up and felt her stomach clench. Was he going to have it out with Kosta and Athena? She prayed that wasn’t it. Athena wouldn’t respond well to Simon’s anger, and Kosta? Now that she knew he was a criminal, she had begun to fear he might do Simon or Athena some harm.

As the hours slipped past, Eirene became more and more uneasy, and she tried phoning Athena, but like Simon’s phone, Athena’s went straight to voice mail.

Finally the house phone rang. Eirene raced to pick it up.

“Eirene, it’s me.” The sound of Simon’s voice made her weak with relief.

“Where have you been?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll be home in the morning and I’ll tell you all about it then, all right?”

“Simon are you safe?”

“I’m fine. I promise you.”

“I was so worried,” she breathed.

“I know, and I’m genuinely sorry. Things happened. I’ll tell you about it when I get there. I love you,” he said, and hung up.

Simon felt like a heel phoning Eirene like that and telling her almost nothing of what had happened since he left Halithos. But he was sitting in an interview room at a police station, waiting to confess what he’d done, and he knew she wouldn’t want to hear that. Angry as she’d been, Eirene wouldn’t have dealt well with the real world consequences of Simon’s actions. And his confession.

He was giving them Kosta. He hadn’t planned to. When he’d left Halithos that morning his plan was to go to the hotel where Athena and Kosta were staying, and get his sister to leave with him. He’d tell her the truth if he had to, but he was going to get her away from Kosta.

Only they weren’t there. They’d had a reservation, but a few hours after they’d checked into their suite, Mr. Petrakos had phoned down to the desk and asked for a rental car.

“What time was that?” Simon asked.

“Close to midnight, I believe,” the clerk had told him. “I didn’t take the call, I wasn’t on duty. But when I relieved the night clerk we laughed about how odd it was for newlyweds to check in and then go off in a rental car.”

“They both left?”

“I assumed so. I didn’t ask.”

Simon bribed the man to let him into their suite, hoping that perhaps Athena was still there, and sleeping. But there was no sign of her. Her bags were still in the suite though. One was lying open on the bed, clothing spilling out.

Worst of all there were several broken objects, a vase, a glass, and the phone had been torn free of its line and flung against the wall. When Simon saw the wreckage, it made him go cold inside. Kosta and Athena had had a fight. She threw things when she got mad. A fight, and then a midnight flight from the hotel. That was very, very bad, and it was what inspired Simon’s next stop. He went to the police.

He hadn’t wanted to confess his crimes, but now with Athena’s life at stake, he didn’t hesitate. He walked into the police station and announced his intentions. He’d thought it would be simple. He’d thought he’d tell them what he knew and they’d go out and find Kosta, and rescue Athena. But it was hours before anything much happened. His lawyer had told Simon not to say a word until he got there. The police didn’t seem to know who would be in charge of that sort of crime, and no one was doing anything about Kosta even though he could be murdering Athena for all anyone knew.

Finally Simon said, “He’s kidnapped my sister,” and had the satisfaction of watching the police force mobilize.

He knew Kosta had a place in Thessaloniki, and suggested that they look there. He’d rented a car, so he’d probably intended to drive some distance. Of course he could just as easily have driven south, intending to catch a boat that would take them across to Egypt, or headed west to catch passage to Turkey. Kosta had mentioned living in Istanbul and it was possible he still had ties there. He told all this to the police and begged them to get his sister back. “I’ll tell you everything,” he promised.

Finally, after hours of waiting, he was able to give a statement to the police. He fully expected to be locked up, but given his name and position, and the fact that nobody was quite certain what jurisdiction would be involved in prosecuting the crimes, the authorities let Simon’s lawyer talk them into letting him go.

“He couldn’t disappear if he wanted to. He’s too well known,” the man insisted.

They still wanted to do some paperwork, so they asked Simon to stay for a while longer and he’d agreed. When they left him alone in the interview room, he phoned Eirene, but didn’t have the heart to tell her the whole story. He knew she was angry with him, but he couldn’t pretend he’d had some kind of change of heart. He’d confessed because he saw no other way to ensure that Kosta would be brought to justice and separated from Athena.

He waited and waited, then pushed two chairs together, stretched out on them, and slept.